SEC meetings conclude

The SEC business meetings have concluded with the league handing out a total of $309.6 million to be divided among its 14 schools.

It also ended with the suggestion that the five power conferences could form their own division within the NCAA if the August vote of the NCAA’s board of governors does not turn out to their liking.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive said it would be called “Division IV.” In theory the big schools would govern themselves at that point.

Slive said he felt like there would be support for a move to Division IV if autonomy cannot be reached within Division I. He did not say the group would withdraw from the NCAA.

“Change is hard, but we need to face up to change,” Slive said. “The collegiate model is not only important and valuable to our institutions and student-athletes, but it’s part of the DNA of our American culture. It deserves to be protected, to grow and change and to evolve in order to be preserved for generations.”

Ole Miss chancellor Dan Jones and MSU president Mark Keenum have expressed complete support for the conference’s leadership.

An NCAA steering committee has presented to the power conferences a model for which they would have greater voice. The sticking point right now is how many votes are required to pass any sort of legislation. As it is written, the steering committee’s proposal says two-third and four of five conferences. The SEC wants a threshold of 60 percent and three of five conferences.

The big basketball news finalized today included an amendment to the SEC’s graduate student transfer rule.

The in-coming player must still have two years of eligibility remaining as has been the case.

However, as opposed to applying for a waiver, a school can look at certain criteria and decide for itself if the incoming transfer would be granted a waiver and would be declared eligible.

If the school judges its player eligible and the player, while enrolled within the SEC, does not meet certain criteria, the school could forfeit its right to by-pass the waiver process for three years.

Ole Miss basketball coach Andy Kennedy just signed two players in the spring who would be subject to this rule.

Here’s more on the SEC’s revenue distribution:

From SEC Media Relations

SANDESTIN, Florida (May 30, 2014) – Commissioner Mike Slive announced Friday that approximately $309.6 million of total distributions will be divided among the 14 institutions of the Southeastern Conference. The distributions are calculated based on the revenue sharing plan for the 2013-14 fiscal year which ends August 31, 2014.

The total distribution of $309.6 million is the highest in SEC history. The total includes $292.8 million distributed from the conference office, as well as $16.8 million dollars of contracted revenue retained by institutions that participated in 2013-14 bowl games.

The average amount distributed from the conference office, excluding bowl money retained by participants, is slightly over $20.9 million per school.

The total distribution amount is comprised of revenue generated from televised football, bowls, the SEC Football Championship, televised basketball, the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, NCAA Championships and a supplemental surplus distribution.

The $309.6 million does not include one million dollars of academic enhancement payments that is paid directly from the NCAA and divided among the 14 member institutions. Revenues derived by member institutions from their local media packages are also not included in the total amount.